June 28, 2012

7 Quick Takes: King Leck, a Cooking Rat, Stokke, and The Worst Chore

1. I read Graceling and several weeks later I bought Bitterblue. (I had no idea I'd missed Fire, the second book, until sometime yesterday.) The book is firmly YA dystopian fiction and Graceling (the first book) hinted at a bad thing King Leck had done. Bitterblue picks right up with this storyline and I endured several chapters of suspense on the topic before I was positively DYING to know just WHAT had King Leck been DOING?? It was really awful and really mysterious and I JUST WANTED TO KNOW.

I went ahead a few chapters and found nothing. I went to the end of the book and found nothing. I Googled and found nothing. (RARE.) I was really frustrated I could not figure out what this horrible King had done and I was feeling really inconvenienced that I would have to READ THE ENTIRE BOOK to find out. But, I resolved to read it, like a good, literate human. Approximately five minutes later, I got bored reading the book because I was so distracted by KING LECK! KING LECK! WHAT DID HE DOOOOOO?

I finally figured out how to use the search feature on my iPad for "King Leck" and I paged through the book in fifteen-word blurbs via the search window in the margin, until I finally found out what horrible things King Leck had done. (They were very horrible things.) Now I could concentrate on the other storylines and themes of the book. (Digital reading, FTW!) (Pretty sure this is NOT what the author intended.)

I do this a lot with books and television shows and movies. I want to find out what's going to happen so I Wikipedia and immediately feel better. (I have recently done this with Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, and Breaking Bad.) Then I continue watching or reading, happy with the knowledge of what's coming, whatever it is. I know, it sounds like I'm RUINING everything but I'm not! I promise I still enjoy the books, movies and TV shows.

2. The airplane is going in for its annual mechanical inspection next week so everyone think good, non-breaky thoughts for it. I would love it if I did not have to replace a $400 blinky light this year (as we did in 2010).

3. I hardly ever break out the DVDs any more, thanks to Netflix and Amazon, but the other night I wanted to watch Ratatouille with Claire and I could not find that stupid DVD to save my life. I spent a full thirty minutes double checking the soft-sided DVD cases, the linen closet, behind a cabinet, in a drawer, perhaps in the office? The cooking rat movie was nowhere to be found.

This is why DVDs are dying/dead. Even when you OWN the movie you want to watch, it's still a giant pain in the ass to actually watch it. (Not to mention the fact that it's a stupid Blu-Ray, which means it would take like ten minutes to even start up, OMG I hate Blu-Ray.)

We never got to watch the cartoon rat cook a meal. (Four days later, I still haven't found it.)

4. I spent a large part of my afternoon sorting clothes for the children. (Is there anything worse than this chore? No, there is not.) Charlotte is kind of shrimpy (about 20th percentile) and at almost 14 months she's still comfortably wearing a lot of 6-12 month items. Claire, on the other hand, is wearing a wide variety of sizes and this whole 4T/5T/4/5 sizing is very confusing.

The brands don't seem to be consistent at this age (she's 3 and will be 4 in October) and it's a total crapshoot as to whether a dress will be scandalously short or sister-wife long. Same with the shirts and shorts: will there be four extra inches in the chest/waist or will it not even go on her body because it's cut so slim? Since her Grandma and Grammie buy ALL THE CLOTHES, this is putting a cramp into my sizing advice for them. (I have big problems, I know.)

5. Charlotte really likes to dance to Super Why.

6. Thank you to everyone for the thoughts on the lime green Stokke a few weeks ago. You convinced me to get it and when it arrived it was...electric green. Kind of Mountain Dew green, actually. It hurt my eyes.

Eagle-eye reader Meaghan suggested WHITE, which was not one of the options on the table, which was actually very genius of her. I traded the green for white and it's fantastic. THANK YOU MEAGHAN! (Also, WHY NO BLOG MEAGHAN? You are obvs very clever!)

7. I purchased all of the turquoise zig-zag fabric for the curtains in the kitchen (as seen above, still thumbtacked to the wall), and I have even sewn the panels, but they remain laying on a chair upstairs and not hanging on the window. I can't find the right curtain rod. The windows in the kitchen are on a wall that meets at an angle, (it's kind of like half a bay window) and any curtain rod with a finial won't work.

Low profile and slim enough to hang on adjacent windows (that meet at an angle) without them knocking into each other. Also? Not ugly. Perfect! Except...they're $50 and I need two of them and I wasn't really thinking this was a $100, plus tax, plus shipping project. These also do not appear to be $50 curtain rods, I mean, there's just not a lot TO them. These appear to be worth...$35. AT MOST.

I keep looking for a not-PB version but apparently the people in charge of PB knock-offs are not really clued into these curtain rods, and it's the only version like in all of America.

In regards to sizing! Someone told me the "T" sizes are bigger in the butt area to allow for diapers/pull ups, and the regular sizes are not. She did mention a 5T top and a size 5 top are pretty much the same thing, so I hope that helps. We are in size limbo as the T stuff is not outrageously skanky like the older girls department stuff I've seen. So! Not looking forward to when 5T isn't an option!

We have a hand me down natural wood stokke. I love it, but after two years with us and daily hard abuse from the children, it is coated in filth. Do you think it could stand up to a rinse outside with a hose or perhaps pressure washing!?!? I love the white but the filth factor makes me cringe.

Children's sizing is ridiculous. I also suspect that adult sizing is ridiculous but I don't think we notice as much since it is not as frequently changing. But why don't they just make all the things the same size?

I like those curtain rods too. I need to find some curtain rods for the nursery and I am already annoyed by that job.

I like reading plots too. I always ask people what happens in books/movies even ones I haven't seen. They say they don't want to spoil it but it's better for me if I know what's going to happen. Less tension.

Oh, I am so glad that the white worked for you! It really does look like an awesome chair. Also for the earlier commenter, I wash my wooden highchair outside with the hose or in the bathtub on a pretty regular basis with no issues, so...

So, I have been in curtain hell forever. I found these great curtains from IKEA, but they were grommet and I didn't like the grommets. I had the brilliant idea to convert them into ones that clip but I need every inch of material available and it has just been massive massive headache! BUT, I have a weird corner situation like yours too. Mine happens to be a full corner. Anyhow, I found a corner connector at Bed Bath and Beyond. It looks adjustable, so I just went to find a link and it says it works for bay windows.

I do love the PB one, it is so neat and clean looking. But their prices are just so unreasonable on most things. That rod does look like some towel rods my parents had in their house growing up though, so maybe the fixture idea would work.

I sometimes noodle on blogging and always decide that my plate is full. Am jealous of all of you with a good record of what your kids are doing though.

I read an article recently that said most people's enjoyment of books/tv/movies isn't at all diminished by spoilers (like you said, it's actually easier to enjoy it if you're not stressed about it), so I don't think you're uncommon there.